Regional nursing experts attend landmark summit

Twenty regional experts in nursing attended a summit at the University of Wolverhampton to discuss ways of addressing health issues in the West Midlands.

The meeting brought together leaders in nursing research from the region’s universities for the first meeting of its kind in the UK on Friday, 20 June 2014.

The Summit Meeting for West Midlands Nursing Professors explored how the experts can work together to address health issues and increase research within the region.

The event at the University of Wolverhampton Science Park also included the re-launch of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) West Midlands branch of the Research Society.

Professor Magi Sque, from the University of Wolverhampton’s Institute of Health Professions, said: “This was a landmark summit of West Midlands Professors from our great universities. This is the first meeting of its kind in the UK, bringing together regional leaders of nursing research.

“The day had a number of important objectives among which were how the professors can work smarter and better together to address health issues in the region and what they can do to support research engagement, and increase research capacity and capability within the region.”

Professor Kate Seers, Director of the RCN Research Institute based at the University of Warwick, spoke about the work the Institute carries out to improve patient care. Fiona Murphy, Nurse of the Year 2011, was the inspirational speaker. She shared how she galvanised the hospital Trusts and the whole community in Salford, Bolton and Wigan to make improvements in end of life and bereavement care. Fiona’s work embraces the police and coroners’ services. It also provides maximum opportunity for the deceased to donate their organs and tissues to save a life or increase the quality of life of an individual in need of a transplant. Also attending the day was Dr Andrew Rose, Head of Programmes for the newly formed West Midlands Academic Health Science Network (AHSN). The AHSN aims to fast track implementation of research findings into practice, and has important links not only to healthcare but to industry.

The meeting was funded by the RCN and supported by the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and the University of Wolverhampton.